Further adventures in the passive voice.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, known to the president as "Beanie-Baby," channeled the ghost of the Gipper today when he said, "mistakes were made," a favorite GOP locution of near-guilt. That's right. No one actually made those mistakes, they just appeared on the porch of the Justice Department like a flaming sack of dog turds.

Gonzales held a press conference today to explain away the politically motivated firings of US Attorneys. But Congress, now with New and Improved Subpeona Power™, wants to find out just who it was who put the match to the burning sack.

Could it be Karl Rove, a man quite willing to sell out anything, including justice, in return for a slim political advantage? Or could it be Harriet Miers, the gushing former Supreme Court nominee who thinks George Bush is like, the bestest president ever?

We don't know and Alberto the Torture King isn't saying. Because that would require the active voice and no Republican has used the active voice since the Eisenhower administration.